Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.
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After Danielle got back from the UP we had to wash Roxie because she smelled like a mix of dog and lake. Following that I washed a few days of riding of mud off my bike, during which time I noticed that the coiled green plastic hose I have has a small split in it. This causes a very small, powerful jet of water to spray out.
I’m not sure how it happened, but thankfully it’s still small. Hopefully it won’t get much bigger.
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Do any of you have a good idea for how I can securely dispose of this spindle of optical media? This mix of both pressed and writable media needs to somehow be done away with safely. Normally I’d think a shredder would be acceptable, but buying a shredder is expensive and this is a lot of media to push through in one go.
I’ve considered burning them, but that’s a lot of plastic to burn. Microwaving would be effective, but difficult. Scoring / scraping the surface of each individually is very costly time-wise.
So, any idea what else I could do?
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For my 100th post since moving to self-hosted WordPress with a LJ crossposter I give you this photo of the floor of my shower as it was earlier today with some lots of soap scum on it.
See, I’m lazy and tend to put off some tasks if they aren’t immediately needed. As soap scum is just a build up of soap residue and minerals in the water, I find it to be not disgusting and not worthy of immediate cleaning. Then I tend to let it go for way too long and you get what you see above, soap scum with interesting texture which appear to match standing water and where the shower spray hits while one stands in front of it. Sometimes I’ll sit down in the shower and just stare at it and run my hands over it, wondering exactly how it deposited as it did.
Now that it (and the walls and shower head and stuff rack and doors) are clean, it is much nicer, though. Tomorrow I’ll probably clean the rest of the bathroom. Sink / toilet / floor / etc are a whole lot easier, though.
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A man named Paul Viar is running for re-election as Shelby Township treasurer this fall, but I will not be voting for him.
Yesterday I received the flier above (click the image or here to make it larger) in the mail asking for my vote. One particular bullet point I noticed is the one circled in magenta, which reads:
He voted against paying $2.7 million for two (rarely used) pedestrian bridges, preferring to use tax money to improve township roads.
Thankfully, against the wishes of Mr. Viar, the bridges across M-53, a multi-lane limited access highway, were built. The existence of these bridges allows me to safely ride my bicycle to points westward. Without them I would have to either ride in 45 MPH – 50 MPH soft shoulder or curbed roads (unsafe, particularly when on the far side of the bridges) or at least four miles out of my way north or south to safe crossing points.
I use these at least a couple times per week. Danielle also uses this bridge whenever she walks to the Humane Society of Macomb to visit the horses.
This article from the Advisor Source elaborates:
The current overpasses contain a 24-inch width for pedestrians to walk on when crossing over the highway. Plans to install mandatory guardrails [required to conform Federal standards to keep vehicles from going over the side of the bridge] along the walkway would have further limited the amount of access for pedestrians and cyclists, forcing them closer to a busy roadway with limited visibility.
“Last year I just became even more aware of how serious this problem was because some of the local high schools, their track teams run over that road. They run right on the road and that’s really dangerous,” Manzella said. “We’ve had several incidents out there and it’s just a very dangerous place to walk or ride a bike.”
Township Supervisor Ralph Maccarone said the large amount of amenities for pedestrians on the west side of the township was a draw for people from throughout the area, making a safe location to cross a necessity.
“We have major developments on both sides of the freeway, and we really wanted to provide some access to the parks and trail system we have out there,” said Maccarone.
While I understand that Mr. Viar is conservative in his spending of the public’s dollars, I feel that safe and equal transportation for citizens using whatever mode they choose (foot, bicycle, car, whatever) is worth paying for, and these bridges go a long ways towards allowing equal use of our road system. Not only have I seen pedestrians and other cyclists on the new bridges, I have also encountered people crossing it in motorized wheelchairs, kids riding up and down the safe approaches, and people just using the bridge to move about without a car. That is, people who couldn’t safely use this corridor before.
Mr. Viar’s claim that he voted against paying $2.7 million is also a bit inflated. While the total cost of the project was $2.7 million, $1,187,500 of the cost was actually paid by MDOT grants. Per these meeting minutes (.DOC file) the township’s portion of the bridge cost was only $1,458,500.
Additionally, Mr. Viar also claims in this flier that he “…established an on-line payment system to make it more convenient for Shelby residents to pay their taxes.” I’m not sure what Mr. Viar’s idea of establishing or convenient is, but outsourcing payments to a company which charges a 3% “convenience charge” does not strike me as particularly inventive or useful. What I would find useful is if the township came up with a facility for paying one’s water and sewer bill online and without undue additional fees. Currently this quarterly bill is the only bill for which I still have to write and mail a check.
For reference, the two bridges can be found at these links on Google Maps, although the currently posted images have them in an unfinished state: 21 Mile · 22 Mile.
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The toilet in the hallway has been refilling itself a few times a day, so while up in Grand Blanc for work today I stopped by Home Depot and picked up two new Korky® Plus Premium Universal Flappers (P/N 2001BP). The other toilet wasn’t leaking, but as it was 2001 when I installed the old flappers I figured I’d replace both. After all, one doesn’t want their toilet flappers to fall out of sync.
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I tend to let things go too long before dusting. Case in point, the tall table in my living room. This one has gone for… I’m not sure how long. Today Danielle dusted it (and other things), and I happened to catch this part mid-stroke and stopped her because it looked so nifty.
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Today I received one piece of mail, and it contained this ad which has informed me that Life Alert now has some manner of carbon monoxide detector which alerts the company.
Leave a CommentThere is something surprisingly satisfying about washing one’s feet (and thus hands) after working a bunch.
After another very sleepy class today I stopped at Sears and picked up a small scale (inch pounds) torque wrench (the same as borrowed earlier) along with some bits. I then cleaned up parts from my bike a bit, confirmed the torque on parts like the cranks, hand grips, and a few other things. Come Monday (I believe) I’ll be able to reassemble it with the new wheels and brakes, and the torque wrench should make it lots easier.
Sweeping, cleaning, and lots of wandering around had turned the bottoms of my feet deep gray, so it was into the bath tub to wash them off. They feel really nice now.
I think now I’ll run out to Sears and return the bits, as
For what it’s worth, I’m taking the New Horizons Training for CISSP Certification. It isn’t a formal CISSP class and I’m finding it a bit strange. The instructor seems okay, but he’s living up to the stereotypes of someone who would teach an “ethical hacking” class, which he does. It’s a bit bothersome, particularly in the way which he’s made some direct, but inaccurate statements about technical issues. For example: no matter what it’s always possible to hack into a service listening on a port, DSL uses the unused phone wires coming into your house, an SMTP packet won’t contain a TCP header, and a few other things which I’ve forgotten.
The class is very pointedly designed to teach only the things known to be on the test. I would prefer a much faster paced class, but I think it’ll be useful as I’m now feeling reasonably confidant that I can pass the CISSP exam. I guess it’s a good thing I’ve worked doing what I do at EDS for so long; it means I have the paper / job qualifications to get the cert too.
Leave a CommentNow in the spending money to get back to normal department:
· Replacement TiVo HD ordered as an advance exchange, costing $299.99 until the old unit is received back. (It has failed and wouldn’t boot past the in-firmware Please Wait… screen.)
· Two replacement 12V 18Ah lead acid batteries ordered to get my Smart UPS 1400 working again. $85.75, including shipping.
· More bills paid. (Waveform, etc.)
· Film shipped out to Australia ($50-some).
Ergh. Definitely can’t afford a vacation yet.
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It seems that today’s storm took out one of the shrubs right near my condo. It was partially dead and located at a point which funnels wind during storms. (See this drift at the same point in 2005.)
I had just left Target when I looked up and saw what appeared to be The Nothing coming from the west, so I hopped in my car and headed north on Schoenherr. Before I could make the Michigan left it started, and all through my drive along Schoenherr from M-59 to home it was as if I was driving sideways through a rainstorm. After turning east on 22 Mile and hitting 40 MPH there was still rain pelting the rear window of my car and making streaks from the top of the windshield to the bottom.
While driving down Schoenherr I kept noticing large clusters of leaves falling out of the sky, and at a few points the road was littered with 5′ – 8′ branches. I even saw an overturned trampoline in the road.
After getting home and checking the radar I noticed that everything was beginning to take on a greenish cast and the rain was lightening up. I headed outside with my camera, but beyond the strange light I didn’t see anything indicative of a tornado. No wall cloud, nothing. Oh well.
Here is a detail of the base of the shrub pictured above. Some of the decayed branches can be seen, which is likely what led to the failure.
One other thing which I’d failed to mention previously is that someone has cut down the other shrub near my condo. I’m not sure why this was done; the only thing I can guess is that it’s to allow easy access to the gas meters.
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